


What's The Deal?

by galacticmistake



Series: Strange Happenings in South Park (Whumptober 2020) [2]
Category: South Park
Genre: (and who can blame them?), Aged-Up Character(s), Attempted Mind Control, Cartman is a crafty asshole, Collars, Collars placed without consent, Consent Issues, Craig takes matters into his own hands, Everybody Hates Cartman, Gen, High School, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, It's South Park. What the fuck do you expect?, Kenny is protective over his best friends, Kenny tries to help, Public Confrontation, School, Whumptober, Whumptober 2020, kenny is a good brother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:47:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26788453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galacticmistake/pseuds/galacticmistake
Summary: Kenny finds out that Butters woke up with something strange. after some prying at lunch, he finds that truth is indeed stranger than fiction.(Day 2 of Whumptober 2020: Collars)(Aged up for a high school setting. All main characters are 16, while Karen, who is vaguely mentioned, is 11.)
Series: Strange Happenings in South Park (Whumptober 2020) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1951258
Kudos: 10





	What's The Deal?

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Attempted mind control, collars placed without consent, public confrontation

Lunch had barely begun when Kenny finally left the bathroom, and even that was delayed by the growing crowd of the halls. Luckily, he noticed Kyle in the crowd by just the top of his hat and started shoving his way through the crowds to try and find him.

“Kyle!”

“Kenny?”

“Yeah.” Kenny replied. “How’ve things been?”

“Alright, I guess.”

“Hey, Kyle? Have you noticed anything… strange recently?”

“Well, my lab in AP Chem was pretty fucky today. Nothing was reacting right. But other than that, no, not really. Oh! My neck’s been hurting today. Not sure why, but it’s been a bother.”

“What do you mean by… hurt?”

“Like, I feel like I might choke on air.”

This was alarming to Kenny, and a sense of dread began to fill his mind.

“Hopefully you figure it out. Sorry I’m not much help.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it. Knowing this school, the truth will come out soon.” 

Kyle patted Kenny on the shoulder as the 2 made their way to the cafeteria.

Normally, Kenny wasn’t one to eat lunch. Yes, he got free meals through the school, but he always thought it best to take one of the ready packs to feed his sister at the end of the day when money was tight. And today, it was tight. So he grabbed the ready-pack and a carton of milk and made his way to the cafeteria, hoping to find a familiar face in the crowd. 

And a familiar face did he find.

Butters ran up to him, crying in absolute fear.

“Woah, woah, Buttercup. What’s the matter? Are you OK?”

“I… I…”

“Shh…” Kenny whispered, stroking Butters’ hair. “Take a deep breath. Breathe with me.”

It took a minute for Butters to finally calm down, and when he did, he began unzipping his coat.

“Well, I woke up this morning,” Butters explained, “and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t put a finger on why.”

“Mhm.”

“And I didn’t wanna make a big deal out of it, since you were having your own situation. But look at this!”

On Butters’ neck was a thick black choker with a silver dog tag to the side.

“Butters! Oh my fucking God, how did that get there?”

“Well, if it wasn’t a bother, I was wondering if you could help me figure this out?”

“Of course, Butters. You’re never a bother for me. Now, let me see that dog tag. It might give me a clue.” 

Kenny moved to the collar and took it off with no hesitation. After taking it off, he held it tenderly in his hands, fumbling with the dog tag.

“Of. Fucking. Course.” He muttered under his breath.

“What?” Butters asked, moving to read the dog tag.

The initials on the tag read E.C., which meant that this collar could only have been put on by one person.

“I’ll take care of this, Butters.” Kenny whispered as he angrily moved to one of the biggest lunch tables. 

“ERIC.” Kenny angrily yelled, slamming the collar on the table.

Cartman turned over to face him.

“...what the fuck is that?”

“You tell me. How did this get on Butters’ neck?”

“Why would I know?”

“Why do the initials read E.C.?”

Cartman anxiously started fiddling with his hat.

“I did it.” Cartman admitted. “Why do you ask?”

“Why the fuck do you think?” Kenny asked angrily.

“I… Look, it’s not a big deal. Here.” Cartman reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash. “See this? This is roughly $50. I’ll give you this if you don’t make this public.”

Kenny snatched the wad of cash from his hand and turned so that the whole cafeteria could hear him.

“Hey, y’all?”

The whole cafeteria fell silent.

“If anyone else has woken up with a random collar on their neck, please come forward. I’ll help you take them off, and you can ask Eric yourself what the deal was.”

Craig was the first one to come forward. The collar he had was the same dark blue as his coat, and the dog tag had the same initials.

A few seconds after Craig sat down, Tweek came to the table, and Kenny took off his collar. It was the same as Butters’, though his reeked heavily of meth. 

A few silent minutes passed, and then Kyle went directly to Cartman and handed him the collar that was on his neck. He slammed it down in his hand and walked away, slowly chewing his granola bar. 

Kenny held 3 of the collars in his hand, trying to piece together why these specific 4 would have been collared.

“What the fuck was that about?” Token finally piped up. 

Cartman sighed.

“So, I wanted to try my hand at mind control, right? But I figured that brainwashing would have been too obvious. So, I figured I’d test having certain, malleable people wear collars that they had no knowledge of. So if anything went wrong today, that may have been why.”

This left the room shocked. Nobody knew how to respond to that, mostly because it was so outlandish that there really was no way to respond. Eventually, however, Craig stood up again, and he made his way towards Cartman. He snatched one of the collars out of Kenny’s hands, and moved to stand behind Cartman.

“You son of a bitch.” Craig whispered.

And within seconds, the collar was around Cartman’s neck.


End file.
